Fertility and Wage Rates in an Overlapping-Generations Model.

Two conflicting conclusions exist about the relationship between fertility and wage rates in steady-state equilibria in the literature. While Malthus and others predict a positive relation, R. J. Barro and G. S. Becker find a negative relation. Using several specifications of utility functions, this paper shows that whether bequests are operative or nonoperative plays a critical role in determining the relation. Specifically, it is shown that fertility and wage rates are negatively related when bequests are operative and, given some plausible restrictions, they are positively related when bequests are nonoperative.